PZI Teacher Archives

awakening

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Dharma Theme August 1, 2023

Dharma Theme: Friendships & Meetings – Relationships in the Dao, Then & Now

PZI Teachers

Zen is about meeting—we make friends with each koan and allow the universe to work with and through us. The sweetness, and even the gnarly bits of friendship are part of the intimacy at the center of meeting. In the field of connectedness we discover things we can’t discover on our own.

180 Words
Text July 26, 2023

Carried in the Dark – On Lostness & the Spiral Path of Practice

John Tarrant

I’ve been thinking that everybody needs to start by being lost. And that the Dharma is a spiral path. It will happen again, and then again, and then again. So, when you are lost, instead of thinking, “This is an abnormal, wrong situation,” that’s what koans give us—they say, “Oh, well, I’m lost, fortunately. I don’t know what I’m doing.” 

4196 Words
Text June 28, 2023

Falling Into the Well of Sesshin

John Tarrant

The nice thing about falling is it’s already happened, you know? It started already; there’s not much you can do about it. So you’re kind of free, in a way. It’s sort of like being condemned: Knowing you’ll die tomorrow—well, you can do anything you want tonight.

4081 Words
Text June 23, 2023

We Are Interwoven

John Tarrant

It’s a noble thing to gather together for the Dharma. It has hidden effects, that if we thought about it from afar, we’d think, Ah, I don’t know. But when we’re together, we can feel, Oh, yeah, it’s happening. I can feel it in my heart and my soul and my fingers.

3004 Words

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Dharma Theme June 9, 2023

Dharma Theme: Meeting the Inconceivable

PZI Teachers

What you can conceive of might take away your life. On the other hand, what you cannot conceive of will give you your life.

144 Words

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Dharma Theme March 29, 2023

Dharma Theme: Tea Ladies, Hermits, & Other Strange Teachers Along the Way

PZI Teachers

To meet a Tea Lady was always a somewhat risky proposition. Usually, in koan-ville, an unsuspecting traveler hurrying on their way somewhere else—consumed with their own knowledge and problems— would encounter a tiny wayside establishment with a deeply mysterious proprietor on hand.

0 Words
Text March 26, 2023

Falling with the Koan NO

John Tarrant

John Tarrant gives a talk on Zhaozhou’s NO: This koan is often offered as a first “gate,” but I think you need to already be in trouble and falling before it’s useful. Life is always offering us that cliff—that door of falling. When you’re falling, you can’t screw it up because actually there’s not a lot you can do. But what you do will be very free and won’t be constrained by the usual. From a recording made in Fall Sesshin 2022.

5207 Words

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Dharma Theme March 22, 2023

Dharma Theme: In the Wild – Mountain Koans & Poems

PZI Teachers

Eventually you come to a place where you can’t go on and you can’t go back. You have arrived at the base of cliffs; you can’t scale them, you can’t get around them, and there’s no handy tunnel through them. It’s a daunting place—that’s the point of it. And when you arrive here your life and your journey can become your own.

23 Words

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Dharma Theme March 15, 2023

Dharma Theme: Baizhang’s Fox – Cause & Effect in a Fox Life

PZI Teachers

How many lifetimes do we spend in our fox suits? They are not wasted. All forms are part of the lively package of existence. Turning words and sudden awakenings even from long-suffering can appear anywhere and in the most unexpected ways. 

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Video February 14, 2023
15' 28"
Audio February 14, 2023

A Story of Finding and Reaching

John Tarrant

John Tarrant tells a story of finding and reaching. 24-minute excerpt from Sunday Zen on Boxing Day 2023.

24' 21"
Video February 7, 2023

Great Silence at the Beginning: Buddha’s Immovable Seat

Allison Atwill

No management of the universe is necessary. Effort does not help. Buddha’s story starts with ‘everything’ achieved, and acknowledges the longing and sorrow that can not be assuaged by getting things. Buddha in awakening sits in the immovable seat at the center—all included—even Mara. Talk from January Sunday Zen, Part 3.

19' 30"
Video February 7, 2023

Great Silence at the Beginning: Resting in the Silence

Allison Atwill

No management of the universe is necessary. Effort does not help. Buddha’s story starts with ‘everything’ achieved, and acknowledges the longing and sorrow that can not be assuaged by getting things. Buddha in awakening sits in the immovable seat at the center—all included—even Mara. Talk from January Sunday Zen, Part 3.

18' 29"
Audio February 7, 2023

Great Silence at the Beginning: The Morning Star & The Immovable Seat

Allison Atwill

No management of the universe is necessary. Effort does not help. Buddha’s story starts with ‘everything’ achieved, and acknowledges the longing and sorrow that can not be assuaged by getting things. Buddha in awakening sits in the immovable seat at the center—all included—even Mara. Talk from January Sunday Zen, Part 3.

74' 29"
Video November 1, 2022

Ancestral Stories: Our Ancestors Are Within Us

Tess Beasley

What is my piece in this patchwork inheritance? We are complicated—we don’t always know what qualities and histories inhabit us. We come into these lineages in mystery…maybe the lineages find us. Our koan lineage is one of moments of awakening, passed down. Excerpt from Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 19 minutes.

19' 8"
Audio October 24, 2022

Fall Sesshin 2022: Falling with the Koan NO

John Tarrant

When you are falling, there is not a lot you can do about it, but you are no longer constrained by your usual preoccupations. Awakening, too, is in the category of things you can’t do anything about. Sesshin’s Gate 3 is NO—or Mu—the famous dharmakaya koan that opens the body of reality. NO casts away all the consciousness you have had until now. Music with Jordan McConnell, closing words with Allison Atwill from the story of The Little Prince. Complete session recorded October 6, 2022.

54' 13"
Audio October 24, 2022

Fall Sesshin 2022: Falling with NO

John Tarrant

When you are falling, there is not a lot you can do about it, but you are no longer constrained by your usual preoccupations. Awakening too, is in the category of things you can’t do anything about. The apparatus of certainty is circumvented and the universe is manifesting and unfolding through us. Excerpt from a sesshin dharma talk recorded October 6, 2022.

19' 40"
Video July 29, 2022

Forms of Awakening

John Tarrant

Kensho is a real thing—and you can’t pin it down. Awakening takes many and varied forms. Long to really understand reality, and have the joy of that. From a talk given during Summer Sesshin on June 17, 2022. 12 minutes.

12' 7"
Video July 14, 2022
27' 26"
Video June 19, 2022

Magical Meetings: Encountering Your Own True Self

John Tarrant

John Tarrant on a meeting past midnight with an old familiar face that you may or may not recognize right off. When there is no moon and you can’t find your way in the usual way, you are bound to have some unusual encounters. Stories, readings, comments, and music for meditation from Michael Wilding and Jordan McConnell. Complete Sunday Session recorded on June 12, 2022.

70' 34"
Video June 19, 2022

Magical Meetings: Past Midnight – Koun Yamada’s Awakening

John Tarrant

Awakening comes when you least expect it. Zen ancestor Koun Yamada returned from a retreat feeling deeply uncertain. Then dream life confirmed his awakening. Recorded June 12, 2022. 2-minute video.

1' 59"
Audio May 24, 2022

Enlightenment & Jam – Shopping for a Rhinoceros

John Tarrant

Shopping for enlightenment. What is this? Things come at us and over us during an enlightenment experience—sometimes quite unusual. You are being carried by the Dao; it doesn’t care what else you’ve got going on. Music for meditation from Jordan McConnell and Micheal Wilding. Recorded May 15, 2022.

63' 23"
Audio May 23, 2022

Rhinoceros Shopping – Jam & Enlightenment

John Tarrant

The Rhinoceros has a suggested shopping list for John. Among the items, like hay and jam, is enlightenment. Yes, you really can find all of these things at the market, right in the middle of your busy life. 15-minute excerpt from the Sunday Session: Enlightenment While Shopping for Jam, recorded May 15, 2022.

15' 31"
Audio December 28, 2021
74' 45"
Text September 23, 2021

Awakenings of Linji & the Great Chan Teachers

John Tarrant

John revisits the awakenings and koans of the great teachers, among them Yunmen and Linji. The love, and attention, and faithfulness at the heart of the stories and teachings of the Chan ancestors is their gift to us. And everything we bring to it is an addition into this great heritage, and is part of the layering. Transcript from a video talk in Fall Sesshin 2019.

4443 Words

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Article September 10, 2021

What Are the Practices of Gratitude?

John Tarrant

“Gratitude is something that I haven’t planned on—either to receive or to give—it takes me by surprise. It arrives out of nowhere. It’s the part of happiness that is beyond selfishness. My gratitude doesn’t have a lot of discrimination, and I like that.”

1213 Words
Text August 13, 2021

Enter Here, Step Through

John Tarrant

Day two of 2018 Winter Sesshin. John Tarrant introduces the great koan “No,” a gift from the ancestors. The gift is what happens when we hang out with the koan. “No” as the purest gate. When we step through, we find out we’re here! It’s not personal, you’re harmonizing with the universe. Transcript from a recording on January 17, 2018.

4957 Words
Audio July 19, 2021

All Through the Body – Your Unique Recipe for Awakening

Allison Atwill

We are exhausted by our own agendas; in Chan and Zen the Bodhisattva of Great Mercy vows to stay until all beings are awakened. Her primary bond is with uncertainty. Your recipe for awakening is only for you.

55' 15"

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Article May 7, 2021

Sudden Awakening

John Tarrant

In even the simplest life, pain and disappointment accumulate—and at some moment everyone longs to walk through a gate and leave the past behind, perhaps for an earlier time when the colors were bright and the heart carried no weight. The quest for a fresh start is so fundamental that it defines the shape of the stories we tell each other. Article by John Tarrant published in Lion’s Roar magazine on July 1, 2007.

4320 Words
Audio April 23, 2021

Guided Koan Meditation: Peach Blossoms at Spring Sesshin

John Tarrant

A guided koan meditation with John Tarrant to begin the Spring Sesshin. Koan: Peach Blossoms. 7 minutes as recorded April 7, 2021.

7' 0"

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